The present invention is in the field of linear motion ball bearings, each consisting of a cage with a plurality of ball guides or raceways distributed over its periphery, each guide having two straight races running parallel to the axis of the bearing and two semicircular turn-around races connecting the axial races, and of a thin-walled cylindrical sleeve slipped over the cage, which sleeve is provided in the region of one of the straight races in each raceway, with a radially continuous longitudinal slit.
Ball bearings of this type include outer sleeves, and are also known as ball bushings or drawn cup linear bearings. They have continuous longitudinal slits in the unloaded zone of the raceways, these slits having widths smaller than the diameter of the balls as disclosed in DT-AS No. 1,262,691 which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 3,464,745. These prior art bearings have the disadvantage that the balls must be inserted in the cage prior to assembly of the bearing, the cage with deformation then being slipped into the sleeve with the balls. These bearings have the further disadvantage that the balls in the straight return zone have metallic contact with the sleeve on both sides of the longitudinal slit, which leads to wear and also produces noise.
One object of the present invention is to provide a ball bearing of the type initially mentioned which lends itself to assembly in simple fashion, and in which wear and noise are largely eliminated.